Hele's School Explained

Hele's School Plympton
Coordinates:50.3924°N -4.0655°W
Motto:"A great place to learn. A great place to grow."
Head Label:Principal
Head:Justine Mason
Founder:From a bequest of Elize Hele
Country:England
Postcode:PL7 4LT
Ofsted:yes
Urn:136557
Enrolment:1,389
Lower Age:11
Upper Age:18
Colours:Selective Yellow
Website:http://www.heles.plymouth.sch.uk/

Hele's School, formerly Plympton Grammar School, is a co-educational Academy school and Sixth Form in the Plympton district of Plymouth, England, 6miles east of Plymouth city centre. Until 31 March 2011, Hele’s was a community school funded by the Local Education Authority (LEA), which is Plymouth City Council. From 1 April 2011, Hele's became an Academy, which among other things gives the school financial and educational independence.[1] The school has a voluntary Combined Cadet Force with Navy, Army and RAF sections. Cadets in the CCF are given the option to take part in the annual Ten Tors Challenge on Dartmoor.

Admissions

In September 2000, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) designated the school as a specialist Language College. The school has also been designated as a Mathematics and Computing College and has also taken on applied learning specialism.[2]

Academy status

In June 2010, the government wrote to all schools that had been judged as 'outstanding' by Ofsted, inviting their Governing Bodies to consider converting to Academy status. The Governors of Hele's School consulted with parents and unanimously voted to apply to become an Academy, effective from 1 April 2011.[3] On 1 September 2017, the school joined the Westcountry Schools Trust.[4]

History

Hele's (pronounced "heals") School was founded as "Plympton Grammar School" in 1658 under a bequest made in the will of the lawyer Elize Hele (1560–1635) of Fardel[5] in the parish of Cornwood, and of Parke[6] in the parish of Bovey Tracey, both in Devon. The school was renamed after him as "Hele's School" when it became a state comprehensive in 1983.[7] Hele's bequest was overseen by Sir John Maynard and also led to the founding of The Maynard School and Hele's School, Exeter.

In 1715 the Reverend Samuel Reynolds was appointed as head master and his son the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) attended the school.[8]

The original building, a grade II* listed building,[9] survives in George Lane, Castle Barbican, in Plympton St. Maurice, but in 1937 the school moved to new premises on Seymour Road, which it still occupies today.[10]

The school maintains an association with the Plympton Grammar School Old Boys field hockey club, formed in 1926.

Prime Minister's Global Fellowship

Students have attained places on the Prime Minister's Global Fellowship programme. The school achieved its first student in the inaugural year of the programme, 2008, and in 2009 had another successful applicant.[11]

Notable former pupils

Plympton Grammar School (1658–1983)

Hele's School (1983–Present)

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Hele's School Academy statement. 5 July 2016.
  2. Web site: Specialist Schools Home . . 2007-09-13 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060803055309/http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/specialistschools/ . 2006-08-03 .
  3. http://www.heles.plymouth.sch.uk/userfiles/documents/academy/Consultation_Parents%20letter.docx Academy Consultation Parents Letter
  4. Web site: WESTCOUNTRY SCHOOLS TRUST - GOV.UK . 2024-01-21 . www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk . en.
  5. [John Prince (biographer)|Prince, John]
  6. Copy lease, Elize Hele of Parke, Bovey Tracey, Esq, 12th August 1618, Plymouth and West Devon Record Office http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/3a3fd5c6-0c6e-4525-8244-fb11610051d4. The mansion house of Parke is today the headquarters of Dartmoor National Park
  7. Web site: Robinson . Chris . 2023-07-04 . Plymouth's historic treasure in the heart of a Stannary town . 2024-01-21 . Plymouth Live . en.
  8. Web site: Plympton Grammar School . Plymouth Data. The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History . Moseley . Brian . 12 February 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071027092222/http://www.plymouthdata.info/Schools-Plympton%20Grammar%20PTN.htm . 27 October 2007 . 26 January 2007.
  9. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101322035-education-offices-former-grammar-school-plympton-erle-ward#.WSoomdy1sqc old Plympton Grammar School, British Listed Buildings
  10. Web site: Hele's School . . 2007-09-13 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070710194654/http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.9119 . 2007-07-10 .
  11. British Council website "Fellows" accessed 10 November 2009.
  12. ‘FOSTER, Kevin John’, Who's Who 2016, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2016
  13. 12750. Haydon, Benjamin Robert (1786–1846).
  14. Book: . 1912 . . 978-0-7136-7527-6 .
  15. Web site: Grammar School. Plympton St. Maurice. 16 January 2021.
  16. 22444. Pole, Sir Charles Morice.
  17. 23429. Reynolds, Sir Joshua (1723–1792).
  18. 24206. Rowe, Samuel (1793–1853).
  19. 24326. Russell, John [Jack] [called the Sporting Parson] (1795–1883).
  20. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/7669698/Sir-Gordon-Shattock.html Sir Gordon Shattock - Telegraph
  21. 48167. Trelawny, Sir Harry, seventh baronet (bap. 1756, d. 1834).
  22. Web site: Lewis Gregory . 21 January 2024 . Cricket Archive.

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